


Buried Flames

by LightInside



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, Attempt at Humor, Awkwardness, F/F, Healing, Other Additional Tags to Be Added
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-14
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2018-12-01 22:20:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,183
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11495913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightInside/pseuds/LightInside
Summary: Team RWBY is finally back together from splintering after the fall of Beacon, but not everything is okay. The situation between Yang and Blake is especially tense - tense enough that Blake isn't sure that she should be inflicting herself on Yang. A story about mistakes, recovery, and forgiveness.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to my friend Ash for the title ^_^ titles are hard.

Blake sat in the hallway, eyes closed as she focused on listening.

It had been three days since she’d been reunited with her teammates. Somehow, the others had found each other before she found any of them. Not that she’d been looking, with no way to know they’d all come to Mistral for various reasons. Ruby had told her all about how she and Jaune and Nora and Ren had traveled across Anima to make it to Mistral, their long and dangerous trek completed to follow a lead on the enemy. Weiss had been relatively tight-lipped about what had happened to her during their time apart, but Blake gathered that she’d been taken unwillingly back to Atlas by her father, and that she’d been disinherited and escaped to meet up with her sister.

Yang had a new arm. Blake did her best not to stare at it, but the weight of its very existence seemed to draw her attention whenever she was in the same room as Yang. Which was rarely.

Blake had been planning on speaking to her when they met again. She’d rehearsed it dozens of times in her mind after she’d made the decision to pursue the White Fang. Explain why she left, explain everything. Apologize. Tell her what she was planning to do about it. She hadn’t expected forgiveness, at least not really. But she had hoped that maybe they could be okay again, work together.

Such an insidious thing, hope.

When she’d walked into the room and seen the three of them again, the reactions had been immediate. Ruby’s grin was practically wider than her face, a burst of rose petals before Blake found herself wrapped in a hug, arms pinned to her sides as Ruby started celebrating the team being back together. Weiss was more subdued, which was to be expected, but she still stood up and smiled at Blake, stepping over to stand by her and to convince Ruby to let go before any of Blake’s ribs bruised.

Yang stood too, a scowl darkening her features, and left the room through another door.

That instantly became a recurring theme. Whenever Blake entered a room, Yang left. If Yang walked into a room that Blake was already in, she stayed only as long as was strictly necessary, going so far as to simply turn around and walk back out without a word on one occasion. It hadn’t taken long for Blake to come to terms with that. She’d hurt all of them, but she’d hurt Yang the most, both in number and severity. If Yang didn’t want to be around her, then she shouldn’t have to be.

So Blake started taking the avoidance on herself. She checked whether Yang was in a room before entering it, she made excuses and found somewhere else to be when Yang walked in. If they had to both be in the same place, she avoided eye contact, spoke only if required, stayed near an exit unless Yang was hovering at the only one, in which case she tucked herself into a corner.

Ruby had insisted that she stay with the three of them at the safehouse they’d been renting, planning their next move and waiting for signs of the enemy or the start of Haven’s next session. Blake enjoyed it, truly, seeing Ruby and Weiss again every day. They enjoyed her company, and she had missed them terribly. But the house was not large, and with Qrow, Oscar, Ren, Nora, Jaune, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang all sharing the space, sleeping arrangements were cramped. They’d reverted to the familiar setup that they’d shared at Beacon: Ren, Nora, and Jaune shared one room, Qrow and Oscar shared a second, leaving Team RWBY to bunk in the only remaining one.

Which was why Blake was sitting in the hallway.

Over the past two days, Yang had been spending most of her time with Ruby, and Ruby had been spending most of her time with Weiss, which left Blake to spend most of her time with Sun, who had been showing her the city. It helped keep her mind off the tension with Yang. Well, it limited her to only thinking about Yang about ninety-seven percent of the time instead of one hundred. Their excursion had ended late tonight, so when Sun headed back to Haven where his team continued to stay, Blake stopped outside their bedroom door for her now-customary check for Yang.

Yang always snored. Not loudly, it wasn’t problematic or anything, but still, it always accompanied her sleep, without fail. Bumblebee was parked outside, so Yang was home, and she wasn’t anywhere else in the house, so she was in the room. But the silence from within was a clear sign that she wasn’t asleep. The lack of other sounds indicated that Ruby was, as even when reading her presence was always clear by her small squeals and exclamations. Weiss was most likely asleep as well, given the hour, though studying was a possibility. Blake had no clue what Yang might be doing, but she wasn’t sleeping. And as long as she wasn’t sleeping, Blake wasn’t entering. No reason to put the dragon in a bad mood right before bed.

Blake was just as careful to be the first to rise and to make her way out of the room before Yang woke up.

She heard Qrow’s footsteps on the stairs, but paid them no mind until they stopped next to her. One ear rotated towards him, but she otherwise didn’t respond, the other ear and her focus still trained on the complete lack of sound coming from the bedroom.

“Hey, kid,” Qrow said softly. She appreciated the quiet from him, she didn’t want to advertise to Yang that she was sitting out here. He nudged her foot with his. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Blake looked up and met his eye. After a long, expressionless moment where Qrow didn't blink, she pushed herself to her feet.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

The evening air was cool on the cliffs of Mistral, breezing through Blake's long hair and causing Qrow’s cape to brush the back of her legs. They'd been walking in silence for twenty minutes, through the area around the safe house. Blake didn't know why Qrow brought her out here, where they were going.

Truthfully, Blake knew almost nothing about Qrow at all. She knew he was Yang and Ruby’s uncle, Yang's mom's brother. She knew he'd trained Ruby on using her scythe. She knew he knew Weiss’ sister, Winter, and that the two were at odds. She knew he often walked with his hands in his pockets. 

She knew Ozpin had trusted him. She knew he hadn’t blinked when she’d shown up three days ago with cat ears instead of a bow. She knew he drank, a lot. She knew he seemed perpetually sad.

Maybe she knew enough about him. 

She was surprised when she realized he wasn't beside her anymore. Looking behind her, she found that he'd come to a stop a few steps back. At the sudden silence brought on by the lack of her clicking heel, he looked up. She gave him a quizzical look and he returned a half smile and a shrug before he started moving again. She fell into step beside him as he passed. 

Less than a block later, he finally broke the moratorium on talking. 

“You did a real number on her, you know.”

Blake hugged her elbows and looked the other way, eyes scanning the trees that lined the road on the pretense of checking for spies. Hardly a pretense after her encounter with Ilia, and Qrow’s tendency to check their surroundings every few minutes mirrored her own. She wasn’t sure how to feel about that.

Accepting her silence as a response, Qrow continued. “Look kid, I get it. You're afraid she’s gonna get hurt because of you. I’ve been there. Hell, I’m there right now.”

Maybe she didn’t know enough about him after all.

She wasn’t sure how to respond, but her old standby of silence seemed like it would work well enough. Rarely had someone managed to cut her to the quick like that. Perhaps his apparently intimate familiarity with that particular variety of guilt was what allowed him to recognize it in her. Or perhaps he was just very perceptive and found the right pieces to put together. She didn’t know how much Yang or Ruby might have told him.

She was startled out of her contemplation when he suddenly continued. “The shitty part is, you’re right. You being here is gonna be hard on Yang.” Blake flinched at the statement. She’d already known, but hearing it from someone else, someone who’d known Yang her entire life, still hurt. “But you  _ not  _ being here would be hard on her too.”

Blake’s ears perked up from where they’d flattened to her head and she turned to really look at Qrow. They both came to a stop, though he didn’t return her gaze. She struggled between an apology for producing the lose-lose situation and denying it with Yang’s avoidance of her as evidence, until he spoke again.

“Problem is, right now, you’re doing the worst of both.”

The silence between them stretched as Blake tried to process what he meant. Her eyes fell to the sidewalk between them, hands curling into fists at her sides as her frustration at the mess she’d caused grew. “But… but I… I’m back. I know it sucks, but I’m trying. She doesn’t want me here, and I’m trying to accept that without running away again.”

Qrow finally turned to look at her, drawing her eye. “How d’you know she doesn’t want you here? You two haven’t said a single word to each other since you showed up.” Blake flinched at the fire in his voice and the truth in the words, finding a bit of pavement to look at rather than meet Qrow’s gaze. “You’re right, this whole thing does suck, and with how you’re going about it, it’s gonna stay that way! Keep doing what you’re doing, and you’re gonna put Yang right back where she was when you left.”

“What the hell am I supposed to do then?!” Backed into a corner, Blake’s temper flared as she shouted and turned to glare back at him. “Pretend she’s not leaving the room every time she sees me? Force myself back into her life when she doesn’t want me there? Run away again? Abandon the people who are closest to me in the world?”

Qrow stood his ground, voice rising to match Blake’s volume. “You already did it once, what’s stopping you from a second time?!”

Blake’s ears flattened as she backed down, head falling and eyes seeking the ground again. Of course, Qrow didn’t know that it had already been three times - her family, the White Fang, and her team. She knew she didn’t have a response that could hold water. The best she had was that it broke her heart, the most recent time even more so than the first, but even that hadn’t stopped her from doing it. If she truly thought that it was the best course of action, she would run again, and knowing that destroyed any confidence she had about being here.

After it became clear that she wasn’t going to reply, Qrow finally sighed out his anger and took out his flask, taking a long swig before putting both it and his hands back in his pockets. “Look kid, here’s the deal. You can’t do this half-and-half thing. If you’re gonna be here, be here all the way. Show you actually want to be here. If you can’t do that, then you need to leave. Yang will be able to deal with it either way, but doing both is twisting the knife. And I won’t let you do that to her again.”

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

Qrow’s words echoed in Blake’s mind as she lay in the dark, trying and failing to sleep. Soft snores from the room had indicated Yang’s success in that particular area, along with Ruby and Weiss, when Blake and Qrow finally arrived home from their walk, the remainder of which was completed in contemplative silence of questionable tension. Blake had expected more animosity after the vague threat, but he’d still pushed her out from under a falling street lamp bulb, so perhaps he wasn’t too upset. As long as she followed his advice.

She had no idea which of his two proposed options she would end up taking. Obviously, she wanted to stay. Ruby and Weiss and Yang were more important to her than anything else in her life. So, the requirement was to show them that she really did want to be here.

With Ruby and Weiss, and to a lesser degree with Jaune, Nora, and Ren, that was relatively easy. They were eager to spend time with her, and she was overjoyed to have them in her life again. She could enjoy their company enthusiastically, as enthusiastic as she ever was at least, and despite the problems all three of them would have to face going forward, things between them were more or less the same as they’d been before.

With Yang, it would be much harder. Blake wasn’t even sure what she would do the first time that Yang voluntarily stayed in the same room as her. But until she did, Blake had zero chance of trying to show her that she wanted to be there, and she was the one that Qrow was worried about for it.

Step one would have to be to simply stop avoiding Yang. Their chance encounters would increase dramatically without Blake’s exceptional hearing steering the two apart, and that would probably put more of a strain between them. Blake still didn’t feel like she had the right to seek Yang out. She’d have to wait for Yang to come to her.

Step two… step two would have to be apologizing. An apology typically involved expressing remorse and ensuring that the transgression wouldn’t happen again. That second part is what was hanging Blake up. She knew she couldn’t promise she wouldn’t leave again. If she couldn’t reconcile with Yang, then the choice would be between leaving or holding Yang back, and that was no contest. Or if Yang wanted Blake out of her life, Blake would respect that as penance for her sins. She wasn’t sure if or how she would be able to stay close with Ruby and Weiss if that was the case, and it was a scenario she did her best not to dwell on. But she wouldn’t leave without talking to anyone first. She would at least tell them. That would have to be enough for the apology.

Step three depended entirely on how Yang took the apology.

Blake was jolted out of her train of thought by a quiet voice breaking the room’s snorey silence. She looked down from her upper bunk to the lower bed across the room where the voice had come from.

“Blake,” Yang called, rolling over in her sleep. Blake’s heart found an unhappy medium between stopping completely and pounding in her ears. “Where are you?”

The last time she’d heard those words on those lips, they’d immediately followed Adam’s threat to destroy everything she loved. Her heart ached as Yang’s stump waved into the air, her mechanical arm left on the nightstand for sleep.

Blake’s first instinct was to leap down from the bunk she’d been given above Weiss and wake her partner from her nightmare.

Legs already swinging over the edge, she froze. Yang may have been calling for her in her nightmare, but she hadn’t sought her out. Blake didn’t know how Yang would react to being woken by her, but judging by her reaction every other time she’d seen her, it wouldn’t be good. It would probably only upset her more. And until Yang accepted Blake back into her life, it wasn’t her place anyway.

But she couldn’t just let Yang endure the nightmare either. Having woken up from plenty of them herself after Beacon fell, Blake knew just how easily a nightmare about such fresh trauma could lead to a panic attack. Waking up before Adam struck would make it easier, and so would having someone to comfort her. Someone who hadn’t caused the disaster in the first place and then fled once it was over.

Debating between her two options for only a breath before dropping silently to the floor, Blake leaned over her smallest teammate and hissed. “Weiss. Weiss!” A light shake of her shoulder brought her to consciousness, and the glare she leveled at Blake was instantaneous.

“What?”

“Yang is having a nightmare,” Blake replied, moving so as not to block Weiss’ vision and gesturing toward the bed across the way. Yang thrashed lightly in her sleep again.

Weiss’ expression softened to one of concern, only to harden into a glare again as she met Blake’s eyes. Blake returned her best pleading look, words too noisy and too slow for the necessary exchange. After several seconds, Weiss huffed. “Fine. But you and I are talking about this tomorrow.”

Blake nodded. The price of her choices, and a small one compared to many of the others. “Thank you.” She leapt back up into bed, pulling the covers back over herself and turning her back as Weiss slipped out of bed and across the room. Even as Blake pretended to be asleep, she let her ears swivel around to keep tabs on what was happening at the other bunk.

With a short pause to ensure Blake was still, Weiss squeezed Yang’s shoulder and gave it a light shake. “Yang. Yang, wake up!” Weiss kept her voice low, attempting to avoid waking Ruby, not a tall task considering the girl slept like a rock compared to her teammates.

After a few repetitions, Yang jolted awake. “Blake?”

“Weiss,” the white-haired girl corrected as she gestured back to the bed above hers. “Blake is fine, she’s right up there. You were having a nightmare.”

Yang’s labored breathing slowly tapered off as she sat up, only to hitch with a sob as she buried her face in her single hand.

Taken aback and unsure how to handle a distraught Yang, Weiss froze before stiffly sitting down beside the blonde and rubbing her back. “Um… there, there? It’s… it’s okay. It was only a dream.”

“It still felt real,” Yang replied as her muted sobs slowly stilled.

“I know,” Weiss replied somberly. Weiss had endured the least direct trauma of the team at the fall of Beacon, but she was also aware of that fact. Her nightmares of that night felt real, so she could only imagine what her teammates’ were like.

“You don’t understand,” Yang said sadly, sounding practically defeated. “It’s been months since I dreamt about him. I thought I was over it. I thought I’d won.”

Blake never did fall asleep that night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I've seen Qrow and Blake interact in anything else I've read, and they haven't directly interacted in canon (that we've seen) yet either, so that scene was definitely an interesting one to write. They're both kind of bad at carrying conversations, it took me a few tries to get something I was happy with.
> 
> Thoughts?


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, you guys. The response to chapter one absolutely floored me, in case you haven't seen the comments on the previous chapter. I wasn't originally in any hurry on chapter 2 for this fic, was planning on going back to polish off some of my Korrasami pieces, but after how much you all loved this thing I started, I just couldn't keep you waiting. Plus, it was easy to find motivation with all of you right there cheering me on and waiting for the next bit. So, truly, thank you. You guys are the best.

Ruby looked around at three of her favorite people in the world, all still snuggled up in bed. Having them all here again was like a dream come true for her. She loved Nora and Ren and Jaune, and they’d grown so much closer during their trip to Mistral, but nothing could replace her sister and her BFF and… Blake. She pouted as she failed to come up with a fitting title for her relationship to Blake. She’d have to fix that.

When she’d woken up those months ago to two team members gone and the third disabled and depressed, she had believed that Team RWBY was over. Even if Yang could get a prosthetic, it didn’t seem like she’d be ready to fight again for a long time. Weiss hadn’t asked to be taken away, but she’d still gone when her father came for her. She was the heiress and would take over the SDC and being a huntress would fade. She had no idea where Blake had gone, but she’d chosen to leave, so there was no reason to think that she’d still want to be part of the team even if the rest of it did come back together.

Everyone had bounced back and rallied around her faster than she could have expected. Yang was, in her own words, ‘armed and ready’, Weiss had literally run away from her family and made her way to Mistral to make a difference, and even Blake had returned to fight again. Jaune had told her that she gave them the courage to follow her, but they gave her the strength to lead. They’d all worked so hard to be here, and she wouldn’t let them down. She’d be the best leader they could ever have.

But that didn’t mean that she couldn’t be a little mean and have a little fun sometimes.

Taking as deep a breath as she could, she caught sight of Blake rolling over in bed (and reaching out towards her?) just before she blew out a long, loud blast on her whistle.

Weiss fell right out of bed, Yang jumped awake so hard she hit her head on Ruby’s bunk, and Blake rolled back over and covered her head with her pillow. Cat ears, right. She’d have to apologize for that later. “Good morning Team RWBY!”

Yang rubbed her head with both hands as a pounding came through the wall from the direction of JNR’s room, probably Ren. Maybe she’d have to apologize for waking them up too. And for Yang’s headache. Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

“Ruby,” Weiss scolded as she pushed herself back up to sit on her bed. “What is wrong with you?!”

Despite her immediate misgivings about her chosen methods, Ruby was resolute in her general course of action, folding her arms over her chest. “We’ve been lazing around too much! I know there’s only so much we can do while we’re trying to let our leads play out, and it’s only been a couple of days since the team got back together, but we need to be in tip-top shape if we’re going to do well at Haven. Not to mention that we could catch a break on what the bad guys are planning at any moment! We need to be ready. We need a team training session!”

“We can train once the sun is up,” Yang protested as she laid back down. “Besides, I just got done training with Dad for literally weeks. I’m in great shape.”

“And I spent days on end doing nothing but perfecting my summoning,” Weiss added. Blake kept silent.

“No, not just a training session for the team, I mean a REAL team training session,” Ruby clarified, drawing the eyes of all three teammates. “We haven’t fought as a unit since the Vytal tournament, and we’ve been apart for months! We need some practice to get the team dynamics back up to snuff!”

Truthfully, they’d always meshed as a team amazingly well, complementing each other’s combat maneuvers from the first minute and executing team attacks naturally without so much as a cursory discussion. But they’d never had to recover from something like this, especially with the still obvious tension between Blake and Yang. As leader, Ruby needed to get a realistic idea of their actual level of teamwork, both so she could help make it better and so that she could plan appropriately if they did end up in a fight.

There was a sizable pause as they all realized that she was right, eventually broken by Weiss. “Fine. But Yang is still right, we can train later. Blake and I have plans this morning.”

Ruby cocked her head in mild surprise, but it was nothing compared to the warily-confused look Yang shot at Weiss. Even stranger, Blake seemed equally shocked by Weiss’ statement, scooting forward to hang over the edge of her bed and look at Weiss too, ears pointing at the ground and hair falling wildly. Weiss met Blake’s eyes in a pointed look, Blake’s ears flattened, and she slid back up to her bunk.

“Since when?” Yang asked, clearly skeptical and a little put off.

“Since last night,” Weiss replied matter-of-factly, pushing herself out of bed and heading to the closet to retrieve clothing for the day. “You both were asleep. We’re going to go for coffee and to finalize our applications to Haven. It’s high time the two of us got the paperwork out of the way, since you two already have. We can train once we return. That should give you ample time to prepare a suitable training location as well.”

Yang still seemed a little miffed, but that could have just been the headache. Or the early morning. Or the fact that they were talking about Blake. Ruby did her best not to sigh, just shrugged and smiled at Weiss. “Okay! Sounds like a good plan. Wish I would have known before I woke everybody up…”

“Yeah, me too,” Yang grumbled, laying back down and rolling over.

Hesitantly, Blake leapt down from her bunk and grabbed an outfit for herself too, following Weiss down the hall to the bathroom to change and head out. Already up for the day and knowing that she’d have little else to do in the empty room during the wait before she could actually go find a private training site (it  _ was  _ really early), Ruby grabbed a book from her pack with the intention of reading a chapter or two in bed before heading out.

Yang rolled back over and stopped her before she could clamber back up to her bunk, though. “Ruby?”

One hand already part way into her climbing preparation, Ruby froze. “Yeah?”

“I feel like I should tell you about last night,” Yang said, sitting up. “It’s not fair for the others to know when you don’t.”

Ruby’s head tilted in confusion again, but she dropped her hand from the bedframe and sat down beside her sister anyway. “Why? What happened last night?”

“...I had a nightmare. About Beacon. It’s been a while since I’ve had one. Weiss woke me up from it. That’s why waking us up early didn’t go over so well, none of us slept very well.”

“What about Blake?”

“She was awake when I woke up. Still was when I fell back asleep. I don’t know if she slept at all.”

“Are you okay?”

“Yeah… Well, I will be.”

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

True to her word, Weiss had taken them directly to a cafe that was on the route to Haven. Blake was sitting at a table for two in the back of the small establishment in a small alcove, private without being overly hidden, while Weiss obtained their drinks. Blake’s tea preferences hadn’t changed much in the past few months, as opposed to the past several years, so she had no fear of receiving one with sugar.

Wrapped up in thoughts of the impending conversation, Blake didn’t hear Weiss approach until the drink was set down in front of her. Weiss took her seat across the table, and set down her own coffee before even taking a sip. “Alright. What the hell was that?”

Blake wrapped both hands around her cup and stared into it, sighing softly to herself before responding. “I’m sorry for waking you up for it, but I couldn’t just wake her up myself. You saw how she reacted when I showed up, it would only have upset her more. She didn’t need that right after a nightmare. Or ever.”

“Are you dense?” The scathing reply caught Blake off-guard, even coming from Weiss. “She was dreaming about you. About when she saw you  _ stabbed through the stomach _ . And you thought that having immediate reassurance that you were okay would be a negative?”

Admittedly, Blake hadn’t thought about it in quite those terms. Cushioning the blow still involved striking her, though. “She’s been avoiding me from the first minute I came back, and I don’t blame her. She has a thousand reasons to not want me around. I’m going to try to be here, but I don’t want to overstep with her. She doesn’t deserve to be upset because of me again.”

“Of course she avoided you at first, she didn’t know how to handle suddenly seeing you,” Weiss reasoned. “Her feelings about you are understandably incredibly scrambled up, and she’s an impulsive person. Can you imagine if she punched you in the face when what she ultimately wanted to do was hug you, or vice versa?” The imagery of those suggestions, as well as the thought of trying to start with one and switch to the other afterwards, made Blake’s skin crawl. “Removing herself from the situation in order to process was a smart choice. But she hasn’t been avoiding you the past few days,  _ you’ve _ been avoiding  _ her _ . Yang is a big girl, she can deal with you being here, it just took her some time to adjust.”

Blake shook her head, swirling her tea slowly. “Dealing with me being here and wanting me here are different things. You didn’t see the look on her face when I walked in. She doesn’t want anything to do with me. I left her, like her mother did, I don’t get to come back just like that.”

“Why not?” Weiss shot back, as though Blake’s statement was ludicrous. “You clearly did, and that’s something her mother never even attempted, so you’re already doing leagues better than her.”

Blake furrowed her brow and set her cup back down again with a huff, confident that it couldn’t be that easy. “If Yang wanted me around, she would have said something.”

“She has said something, you dunce!” Weiss practically shouted at her. “Only you haven’t been around to hear it! You’ve been running off with Sun and doing your best to convince her that you don’t want anything to do with her!”

Qrow’s words from the night before echoed in Blake’s mind. “I decided last night to stop avoiding her. I haven’t had much of a chance to put it into practice yet. Waking her up when she’s extra vulnerable didn’t feel like a smart choice of first step.”

“It would have been better than waking me up and pretending to be asleep! At least it would have shown her that you actually give a damn about her!” Weiss’ rage was towering at this point. “As far as she can tell, you want nothing to do with her, and she has no idea why.”

This was turning out just like the her conversation with Qrow last night, only it hurt more coming from someone who actually knew her as well as Weiss did. “So, what, I’m just supposed to throw myself into her life again whether she wants it or not?”

The look Weiss gave her practically screamed ‘I can’t believe you are this moronic’. “Yes? You ripped yourself out of her life whether she wanted it or not. Why is it that you can choose to hurt her by leaving but won’t risk hurting her by coming back? You have a golden opportunity here to repair your relationship with her, something you clearly want, and you’re making her think you don’t even want the relationship by wasting your chance on self-loathing. It’s infuriating.”

Blake was quiet for a moment as Weiss finally sat back and took a long drink of her coffee. “Self-loathing comes easy when you’ve done the things I’ve done.”

“Oh my God…” Weiss set her cup down and massaged the bridge of her nose. “Look. Yes, you fucked up. Everybody fucks up. Some worse than others, whatever. But this is your one real chance to try to make up for it. Yang wants you back even though she’s angry with you. She’s asked Ruby and me multiple times over the past couple of days if we know what’s going on with you, but you’ve never been around to explain yourself. I don’t know how much longer it’ll be before she writes you off as a lost cause. So please, for the sake of my sanity, stop being such a dolt and act like part of the team again. We’ve got training this afternoon, so it’s the perfect time for it.”

Without even waiting for Blake to respond, Weiss stood and made for the exit, draining the remainder of her coffee on the way and dropping her cup in the waste bin by the door. Blake sat for a moment in stunned silence before sighing and picking up her untouched tea. She still didn’t feel like anything she did now could make up for what she’d done. But everyone else seemed to think so, even Weiss. She supposed she could at least try and see. Finally taking a sip and letting the tea’s warmth spread through her, she pushed the door open and quickened her step to catch up to the girl she slowly realized might very well be her best friend.

~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~/~

Weiss couldn’t help smiling to herself as she lead her team through the door Ruby held open. Their team training session, which had lasted from late morning well into the afternoon, was a huge success, and it had put all four of them in much higher spirits. Even the team attack rehearsal had gone relatively smoothly, including Bumblebee - albeit with a little bit of hesitancy - and Weiss was nearly preening. She couldn’t help but feel as though she had played a large role in the improvement of that situation today.

Ruby was so pleased with how they’d all performed, she’d declared a celebratory meal, which none of them were going to object to. They’d all planned to message their various contacts for restaurant suggestions, but quickly decided that Qrow, Winter, and Sun weren’t likely to recommend places that the four of them would find suitable. Wisely, they chose to contact Ren instead, who pointed them to this establishment immediately.

The square table they were seated at was well maintained, and the atmosphere of the restaurant was informal but not casual, the perfect place for a nice meal without being overly restricted by decorum. Weiss would have to commend Ren on his recommendation. Ruby took the chair on Weiss’s right, leaving the seats across from either of them open. Blake and Yang both hesitated near the vacant chairs and Weiss responded with a sigh and an eye roll.

“It’s either next to each other or across from each other,” she pointed out as she picked up a menu, the first time that any of them had given voice to the awkwardness in its presence. The two glanced at each other before sitting down, Yang beside her sister and Blake beside Weiss. She couldn't understand how they could still be so uncomfortable after working almost flawlessly together in combat training.

Weiss had no difficulty selecting a salad from the menu, and both Blake and Yang settled on their own dishes easily enough, but Ruby seemed to be struggling. They asked the waitress for another moment twice, and Ruby was still flipping pages.

“Need a hand, Rubes?” Yang offered, waving her metallic limb. 

Weiss suppressed a groan, not wishing to dignify the awful joke with any sort of response. She gave Ruby an exasperated look instead. “You realize you're holding the rest of us up while you fail to choose, don’t you?” Still, she expected that her partner  _ could _ actually use a second opinion, so she leaned over into Ruby's space to peek around the edge of the menu. “What are you deciding between?”

“Oh, uh…” Ruby shifted in her seat, turning the menu so that Weiss could see it more comfortably, pointing to her options. “I’m down to two, just can't pick. This rice dish sounds super awesome, but I kind of really want steak, so I'm thinking about this one too.”

“The number 7?” Yang butted in, having considered it herself and knowing her sister.

“Yeah, or the flat iron,” Ruby clarified across the table.

“You can have rice anytime,” Blake pointed out. “Have a steak to celebrate.”

Yang gave her a stiff look that quickly softened. “Good point. Yeah Rubes, go with the steak.”

Seemingly satisfied, Ruby sat back straight and Weiss released her menu. “You'd enjoy the strip more.”

“What?”

Weiss realized she must have actually said that out loud.  _ No point in backpedalling now. _ “The strip steak. It's more tender while the flat iron is tougher. It's more enjoyable for those who aren't steak enthusiasts and it won't weigh you down as much later.” Her teammates all gave her looks somewhere in the neighborhood of shocked. Weiss folded her arms indignantly. “What? I've been fine-dining since I could walk, and my palette is not conducive to tough meats, I learned the difference out of necessity.”

Blake pointedly busied herself with her scroll, and Yang shrugged with a casual grin. “Well I know who I'll be taking food recommendations from when Ren’s not around.”

When their waitress returned, Ruby did in fact order the strip, and smiled at Weiss as she did it. Weiss tried not to let that phase her.

“Salad, huh?” Yang asked after the server had left.

“...Yes,” Weiss replied simply, unsure of why Yang would have an opinion on her meal choice. 

“Salads are good. You know, I tried to be a vegetarian once,” she elaborated, before leaning over to elbow a clearly confused Ruby. “Couldn't keep it up though. It was a  _ missed-steak _ .”

Ruby threw her head back with a sigh. Weiss wasn't even capable of reacting for a moment, she was so thrown by the abysmal pun. She recovered her wits a moment later though. “Yang, that was perhaps the worst joke you have ever told. And I was at your stand-up ‘comedy’ night.”

“Aw, come on guys! Just trying to have a little fun.”

Ever the conversational ninja, striking only at the most opportune moments, Blake spoke up. “Don’t be so hard on her, Weiss. Steak puns are a  _ rare medium well done _ .”

Only pure shock prevented Weiss from walking out of the restaurant then and there. Ruby’s head swiftly fell from where she'd thrown it back and landed on the table with a thud.

Yang, on the other hand, broke into a massive grin. “YES! Nice one! Up top!” Smiling sheepishly, Blake high-fived her partner.

“How on Remnant are we still friends?” Weiss glared at the duo.  _ I should have known it would be something insufferable that would clear the air for the two of them. _

With the tension between Blake and Yang thoroughly shattered by pun bonding, the meal passed in high spirits for everyone, even Weiss. Ruby was ecstatic, a bundle of energy that everyone else fed off of. Yang played off her sister as well as ever, and teased both Weiss and Blake constantly. They returned equal jabs in their own fashions, which she absorbed with a laugh and a pun more often than not. Weiss could almost have imagined that they were back in Vale, out to a team dinner on a Sunday night before heading back to their dorm room to prepare for classes the next day.

Once the last plate was pushed away, Ruby sat forward with a smile and picked up her glass of water. “I'd like to propose a toast,” she announced, waving off Weiss when she tried to make a comment about water not being suitable for toasting. “But I think it should be a team toast. Everybody pick something.” Her teammates shared a look that wasn't quite confusion before lifting their glasses as well. “To teamwork,” she led, smiling wide. “The best indication that Team RWBY is stronger together.”

“To Team RNJR,” Yang chimed in. “Or JNRR or whatever… For getting here safe and saving Uncle Qrow.”

There was a slight pause while Blake debated, the table acknowledging that the pattern was made and she was next. “To Beacon,” she eventually settled on. “A tragedy we won't allow to repeat.”

“To our enemies,” Weiss concluded, sparking general confusion amongst her teammates. “Without whom, the four of us would not be reunited here today.” After a moment for consideration, they decided that was true enough. “May they get fucked.”

“Weiss!” Yang practically shouted, clearly mortified. 

“What?!”

“Not in front of my little sister! I don't need you corrupting her any more than you already have.”

“I have never corrupted anything in my life!”

“Yeah right, I've seen your scroll when you think we're all preoccupied.”

Weiss flushed scarlet. “Yang Xiao Long, how dare you eavesdrop on my scroll use!? That is a massive violation of privacy!”

“Is it still eavesdropping if it's visual? And scroll screens are clear on the back too, you know.”

Meeting eyes across the table as their teammates continued their overdramatic bickering, Ruby and Blake exchanged smiles before raising their glasses and drinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weiss reads smut when she thinks her team's not looking ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
> 
> Thoughts?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Despite a plethora of delays, including a week long vacation over my birthday, a bachelorette party, and officiating a wedding for two close friends, chapter 3 is finally here! I'm sorry to have kept you all waiting, but I hope this is worth the wait ^^ Also, I'm pretty sure this is going to end up as 5 chapters instead of 6, so we're that much closer to the end! I'm still like 60% making this up as I go so I'm not entirely sure ^^;
> 
> Special thank you to my internet-friend Ash and I'm-his-beta-friend SimplyKorra/Weissrose for their help in making this chapter the way it is. Two of these scenes were entirely rewritten over the weekend at their recommendation, and I think the new version are huge improvements. Without further ado, enjoy!

Blake and Ruby sat back to back on the floor of the living room of the safehouse, each reading their current book selection. Blake was more accustomed to reading in bed, sitting up against her headboard, but Ruby was happy to read anywhere, so occasionally Blake would join her, just for the different atmosphere. Besides, Blake knew that Ruby enjoyed her passive company just as much as she enjoyed Ruby’s, even if they never really said as much out loud.

Turning the page on another chapter, Blake glanced behind her with a small smile at an excited squeal from her reading partner. Before going back to her book, Blake gazed around at her other teammates and friends, all scattered around the living room as well. Yang, Nora, and Jaune were engrossed in a game of cards around the coffee table nearby, Jaune clearly winning despite Yang’s best efforts and Nora’s… efforts. Weiss and Ren were engaged in quiet discussion on the couch, a mixture of battle strategies and criticism of the play choices in the card game, judging by Weiss’ animated statements that were far more audible than anything Ren said.

Blake couldn’t help but smile at the gathered huntsmen- and huntresses-in-training. It was so normal. After she’d left her parents for the Fang and Adam, this kind of thing almost didn’t exist. There were thousands of members of the White Fang in Vale, but most of them lived normal lives, only joining the organization’s fight in secret. The few who worked for the cause full time were almost exclusively like Adam - driven by anger and hatred towards their oppressors, singled-minded in their efforts. The White Fang consumed their lives, and so even during free time they would elect to train, to prepare for the next mission, to plan, or just to seeth. Card games and casual conversations and shared reading time weren’t disallowed, they just weren’t desired by most of the group.

Blake liked her new group much better.

Just as she turned to continue her book, Yang drew almost everyone’s attention by slamming her fist on the table. “Ruby!”

Putting down her book and pulling off her headphones, Ruby finally looked up as the group’s collective attention shifted to her. “Yeah, sis?”

“Come help me kick Jaune’s butt at this game, he’s definitely cheating.”

“I am not!” Jaune defended. “You try to win too quickly and use up all your resources before you can get any back.”

“And if Ruby joins, each of you will have fewer resources to start with, and you’ll run out that much sooner,” Weiss observed.

“I’m in!” Ruby cried, plopping her headphones down to serve as a bookmark and moving to the open side of the table in a burst of rose petals, leaving the pile of entertainment equipment sitting on the floor. Blake absentmindedly picked up the two items and stretched over to place them on the couch beside Weiss instead as Nora happily dealt Ruby into the game and Yang whispered with her conspiratorially.

It wasn’t long before the game got intense, little else to be expected in a competition with Yang, Ruby, and Nora as three quarters of the participants. Unsurprisingly for the three now-enthralled observers, it quickly became apparent that Jaune and Ruby were heavy favorites, the two primary tacticians of the group proving to be much more effective at resource management than their loose-cannon teammates.

“I hope your village has been working on its defenses, Jaune, because bandits are coming for your resources,” Ruby taunted, putting her latest card down with more than a little flourish. “Bandit Raid!”

“How could you?!”

“And, thanks to the ongoing Drought that Yang put on all of us last round, all of your active defenses will only be half as effective!”

“Too bad for you, I expected you’d try to hit me while I was down,” Jaune replied, playing a card from his own hand. “Since I already have one available Huntsman in play, I can have him call for backup, giving me TWO unexhausted Huntsmen ready to go! It’ll take both of them, but they’ll have no problem repelling your Bandits! You’ll have to try harder than that, Ruby!”

“Good plan, Jaune, good plan,” Ruby replied, placing her Bandit Raid in the discard pile and grabbing a different card from her hand. “But how will you deal with the follow up Grimm attack?” Jaune’s jaw fell open in disbelief. “Nevermore Stragglers!”

“You heartless fiend!”

“With only your automated aerial defenses remaining, and not enough resources to assist them thanks to the drought, half of my Nevermores will reach your village unimpeded and easily wipe you out!”

“Nooooooooo… My helpless townspeople… Well played, Ruby. Guess I’m out of the running. Yang, you’re up!”

Drawing her card for the turn, Yang smirked and showed it to Blake, careful to avoid letting anyone else see. After Ren had offered to help Nora play, Blake had gladly accepted when Yang asked for her assistance too. Weiss was indignant at first that no one wanted her tactical input, but knew that Ruby was doing fine on her own and had no desire to help Jaune, so she’d turned instead to activities on her scroll. Blake was fairly confident that she hadn’t altered her typical choice of activity when her team was occupied, despite Yang’s observations of it at dinner a few nights prior.

Reading through the card quickly, Blake glanced between Nora and Ruby, trying to contemplate the best use of it. After a moment of consideration, she met Yang’s eye. The silent exchange was rapid: Yang raised an eyebrow, Blake gave her a side-eye, Yang returned a pleading look, Blake rolled her eyes, Yang winked at her, Blake shrugged one shoulder. “How do they do that?” Ruby hissed at Jaune, who returned a shrug. Nora and Ren gave each other a knowing look. Course of action decided, Yang turned to Nora.

“Alright, Valkyrie, you’re going down! Griffon Flu!”

“But it’s not even flu season!”

Blake rolled her eyes and Ren covered his with a hand, but Yang barreled ahead, ignoring Nora’s commentary. “If you’ve got a doctor in town, you can give up your recovery round to have him make a vaccine and cut your losses in half, but otherwise the flu will spread like wildfire, wiping out your pathetic settlement!”

“My watch tower man wants to be a doctor when he grows up, does that count?”

“... No. And because I've invested so much in disasters, the flu is resistant to treatment. If you can't vaccinate it, it'll claim half of your citizens each round!”

“Nora,” Ren piped up. “You have a Doctor in your hand. The card’s rulings let you play it for free when a disease breaks out.”

“Oh yeah! Aaaand, I have this too! Deathstalker Occupation!”

"Town panic means you'll have to exhaust a Huntsman every round to keep the hoards at bay," Ren explained, "until you can commit two to clearing the Deathstalker out."

"Fortunately, Yang has a Huntsman she can commit to limit casualties for now," Blake observed.

"Seems like we'll both make it through this exchange after all. Good try, Yang."

"Not so fast!" Ruby butted in, slamming her own card down. "Shared Misfortune!"

"What?!"

"When two of my opponents are using misfortunes on each other, I can make both of them suffer the effects of their own cards as well as their opponent's! Yang, you'll have to contend with your flu, and Nora's going to fight a Deathstalker too! Unless you two have extra defenses in your hand, you're both done!"

Nora cried out with a dramatic ‘nooooo’ as she fell over backwards in her seat and Yang’s jaw fell open. “Ruby, how could you? I thought we were in this together!”

“There can be only one.”

“Why you little--!” Blake barely managed to duck out of the way as Yang dove past her and into the space Ruby had previously occupied, only to be met with a cloud of rose petals. “Get back here, traitor!”

Blake managed to duck safely under the coffee table before the chase fully started, but she was stuck there for a couple of laps before she was able to join Weiss, Ren, Nora, and Jaune on the couch. A few laps later, Yang finally managed to snag Ruby’s cape, and the two of them tumbled into a full-on wrestling match, the two sisters rolling around the floor trying to alternately pin each other and escape.

Their partners rolled their eyes and gave each other knowing looks, Blake’s fond smile contrasting Weiss’ exasperated scowl.

\---------------

Blake woke slowly, still groggy from her nap. Her other teammates had left her to catch up on sleep while they went to restock on Dust. It was so nice to be able to sleep again, to relax enough to be able to during the day. Things being smoothed over with Yang took away so much of her anxiety. Of course she was still concerned about the White Fang and Salem and everything, but she'd learned from Yang to not let that anxiety control her.

Putting the things she'd done herself, especially recently, to the back of her mind had always been more challenging. She couldn't be happier to have things back to normal.

Stretching her arms over her head, she hopped down from her bunk and located her pants before heading to the kitchen in need of a post-nap snack. Ren was there, cooking for his teammates, and he nodded at her as she retrieved a bottle of water and piece of fruit from the refrigerator. She returned a wave and left him to his task.

She stopped in the hallway, debating between relaxing with Jaune and Nora or grabbing a book or both, but was distracted by a sound coming from the garage: the clang of a metallic tool falling onto concrete, followed by a soft swear in Yang's voice. She must have stayed home to do some mechanical work rather than go shopping.

Blake smiled, reminiscing of Yang tinkering with Bumblebee, the bike's extra parts and associated tools scattered about, long blonde hair tied back and grease on her hands, maybe just a smudge on her face. Talking to herself as she worked, even talking to Blake occasionally  
when she'd hit a snag or have a decision to make, but otherwise focusing on her work and letting Blake focus on her book... or her partner.

Decision made, Blake darted up the stairs and grabbed her current literary obsession, then bounded back down. Fruit between her teeth plus book and water bottle in one hand to free up the other to open the door, she pulled it open and shouldered her way into the garage to join Yang for an afternoon of casual hanging out.

But instead bike parts and engine grease, Blake was greeted instead by a fully intact Bumblebee and Yang off to the side of the garage. Her mechanical arm was removed and resting upon the workbench as she hunched over the open access panel, stump holding the limb down as she carefully tightened a screwdriver with her only remaining hand. Blake froze in the doorway, caught off guard by the display of vulnerability. A wave of guilt washed over her as the reality of Yang’s prosthetic hit her for perhaps the fiftieth time in the week they’d been together again.

With one more twist of her screwdriver, Yang looked up at the still motionless Blake, flashing a trademark smirk and struggling not to laugh. "Cat got your tongue?"

Blake tried to reply, only to be reminded that her mouth was full of fruit. Grabbing it with her empty hand to free her jaw, she deadpanned in response. "Orange, actually."

"Cat got your orange? Or orange got your tongue?"

"Both."

Yang chuckled softly, then returned her focus to the arm on the table in front of her. Blake hesitated another moment, then tried to force casual by hopping up to sit on the bench beside Yang's work.

“So, uh… What’s going on here?” She asked as she started to peel her orange, nails digging in a little farther than needed and gouging the fruit.

"Just a tune up," Yang replied without looking up. "I heard some grinding while I was wrestling with Ruby earlier, so I wanted to make sure everything was alright. Figured I’d try to come up with an improvement or two while I’m in here. I know Atlas tech is pretty top-notch, but it can’t hurt to have a little reinforcement, right? I don’t think General Ironwood does much punching with his."

“Right… makes sense,” Blake responded lamely. The peelings that she’d amassed from her orange so far slipped from her grasp and scattered on the floor, but Yang was too focused to notice and Blake decided to get it later, rather than hop down to clean it up now only to hop back up.

Silence fell between them as Yang contemplated her modifications and Blake struggled to not feel out of place. It wasn’t like she knew any more about motorcycles than she did about this arm, she was equally out of her element either way. But something about the fact that it was her arm made Blake feel unwelcome, like since she was the reason Yang lost the real one, she didn’t deserve to bond over the prosthetic.

She knew that was ridiculous, for a multitude reasons. Everyone kept telling her it wasn’t her fault, and on some level she knew that was true even if she couldn’t stop the guilt. The two of them had bonded over machinery before, several times. If Yang didn’t want her here, she would have asked for some privacy. The event that took her arm, despite being catastrophic, was one of the most intimate things the two of them shared. As her partner, it was Blake’s place to support Yang in this and everything else. Still, the feeling wasn’t easy to shake.

Taking a deep breath to calm herself, Blake pushed all of that away and did her best to relax like she used to during shop time with Yang. Orange successfully peeled, she pulled it in half and set one of them down balanced on her legs before picking up her book. Peeling off one section of the other orange-half with her teeth, she glanced over as Yang reached farther down the bench for set of small wrenches.

Blake barely made it through the first page of her new chapter before she was distracted by movement beside her accompanying a muttered curse. She looked over to find Yang putting the wrench in her mouth to free her hand, which she used to rotate the arm back towards her. It had apparently rolled when she tried to apply torque.

As Yang repositioned her stump to hold down the arm again, Blake returned to her reading without comment. Less than a paragraph later, the sound of metal rolling on wood and another swear drew her attention again. Setting down the wrench, Yang pulled the arm back to the position she wanted before turning to Blake.

“Hey, could you hold this thing still for a second? This bolt is stubborn.”

The request left Blake momentarily stunned. Even through their training sessions and casual hanging out over the past week, Blake had never yet touched the new arm. Belatedly, she realized that she needed to actually respond. “Y-yeah, sure.”

Putting her book down and stuffing the last two slices of her orange half into her mouth, Blake twisted in her seat to hesitantly wrap both hands around the arm’s wrist, struggling not to think of it as Yang’s wrist. As Yang put her wrench back in place and jerked the bolt loose, what was left of Blake’s orange toppled off of her lap, falling straight to the floor with a squish.

“Thanks,” Yang said as she set down her wrench after the bolt was hand-loose.

Blake released the arm and folded her hands in her lap, turning away. “Of course.” She stayed there for just a beat longer as Yang hunched back over to inspect the mechanisms, but quickly picked up her book and water bottle. “I think I’m gonna go back inside. Rest up a little more, have some alone time with my book.” She hopped down from her perch, unintentionally squashing the fragmented orange underfoot. She’d clean it up later, she decided. For right now, she just needed some space.

“Yeah, okay,” Yang replied half-heartedly, putting down her tool and letting her eyes follow Blake out. She made it halfway through the door before pausing and looking back and turning one ear to listen as Yang spoke again softly. “You're going to have to get used to this, you know… if you're going to stay…”

Blake hesitated in the doorway a moment longer before fleeing the room without another word.

\---------------

Despite her excuse, Blake didn’t rest, or even do much reading. She tried to, sure, but after the fourth time failing to absorb the same paragraph, she gave up and let her thoughts consume her.

She had gotten used to Yang’s new arm, mostly, and that was almost problematic. It lulled her into forgetting about everything that happened, let her pretend that things were still okay like they’d been before Beacon fell. She wanted so badly for everything to go back to the way things were, and it was so easy for her to fall into that fantasy.

Maybe she hadn’t gotten used to the new arm at all. Maybe it was just enough like the old one that it stopped her from getting used to anything. If that was the case, then things like what had happened in the garage were important for her to push through. But she hadn’t pushed through it. She’d run away again, if only a little bit, something she’d told herself she wasn’t going to do any more. Not to Yang.

The creak of the door opening jarred her from her thoughts, and she realized the footsteps she’d ignored in the hallway were Yang’s. Not wanting to blow her ‘I’m going to read’ cover, she scrambled to reopen her book as her partner entered the room, metallic arm reattached.

Yang paused just across the threshold and sighed softly before making her way over to her bed, Blake’s eyes following her from her perch atop her own bunk. Silence continued to reign as Yang started checking over Ember Celica, Blake’s eyes never leaving her back.

After a long moment that included the sound of zero pages being turned, Yang looked over her shoulder. Blake failed to react in time, turning her eyes back to the book only after they’d met Yang’s for an instant. The blonde released another sigh, then turned around and sat down on her bed. “Blake, we need to talk.”

Knowing she was caught, Blake let out a small sigh of her own as she set her book down, then dropped from her bed to sit on Weiss’ instead. “Okay. About what?”

“About this whole thing between us, obviously,” Yang replied, setting Ember Celica down next to Gambol Shroud on the bookshelf between the beds. “We keep bouncing from being friends to being strangers with a ton of awkwardness in between, and I don’t know why, and I’m sick of it.”

Blake let the truth of that sink in for a moment. After those first few days, Yang’s treatment of her had been pretty consistent. All of the fluctuations were coming from her own insecurities and guilt. “I’m sorry. I’ve been trying to let things be normal between us, but... it sounds bad to say, but after everything that happened, being around you now… it brings back a lot of pain…”

Yang sighed heavily, leaning forward to rest her elbows on her knees. “Look, having you around is hard for me too, okay? You left, and it took me a while, but eventually I accepted that. I did my best to move on because I didn’t think I’d ever see you again. When you showed back up, it brought it back to the surface. Every time I look at you, I think about how you abandoned me when I was at my lowest. I try not to, but it’s still too fresh. But I’m going to keep trying. Maybe it’ll get better… What kind of pain does it bring?”

Such candor from Yang was enough encouragement for Blake to follow suit. “I don’t know. It’s, like… I have this image of you in my head, from before. Seeing you now and all the ways you and that image differ… What happened with Adam always felt real, always _feels_ real, but sometimes I feel like I’m drowning in it around you.”

Yang hung her head and spoke to the floor. “The only thing I still struggle with is you leaving. I came to terms with what happened at Beacon. If you haven’t, then why did you come back? Why put yourself right in the middle of everything that Beacon meant to you?”

Unable to come up with a reasonable lie, Blake settled for the truth she wasn’t proud of. “I… I heard Qrow was in Mistral from Sun after he talked to Professor Lionheart. I thought he might know something about what the White Fang was up to. I had no idea the rest of you were here. I wasn’t actually looking to come back…”

That seemed to catch Yang completely off guard. Already hunched over, she sagged even further as she absorbed what Blake had said. When she spoke, her voice was soft and small, though still easy to pick up for Blake’s feline ears. “Then why are you still here? Just leave already…”

Blake’s heart froze over as she remembered the promise she’d made to herself: if Yang didn’t want her here, she’d leave. Tears welled up into her vision as she stood up, mind and body both numb. “But… Yang…”

“I said go!” Yang shouted without looking up, eyes squeezed shut.

Recoiling from the sudden yell, Blake was running before she realized it. The setting sun blinded her as she burst outside, the light amplified by the water in her eyes.

Back inside, Yang cried too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments from my beta readers on this chapter included:
> 
> "Yang is so done and Blake just can't get it right"  
> "This is next level emotional"  
> "Oh noooooo bees plz"  
> "Omg that hurts more!!!! Why!!!! Omg why!!!!"
> 
> Please leave your thoughts below so that I can have more one-liners of pain for the back cover of my nonexistent book deal


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "I'll finish it before volume five starts" she said
> 
> Sorry for the delay everybody, I got sick and am also the worst procrastinator in the world. Plus I've been doing rp stuff on tumblr because I am an obsessed nerd. But chapter 4 is here now! Hope you enjoy

“Was that really necessary?” Weiss half-scolded Ruby as the two exited the shop and began their trip back to the safehouse.

“Um, yeah! Have you  _ seen _ Magnhild’s new upgrade? That thing already went through Dust faster than Nora goes through pancakes… okay that’s a lie, but it used a lot, and now it’s got a whole extra slot for lightning! Nora will appreciate the restock just as much as the rest of us.”

Weiss gave Ruby a withering look. “I meant the vials for  _ Jaune _ . His weapon doesn’t even  _ use  _ Dust.”

Ruby shook her head, pulling one of the vials in question out of her pouch to look it over. “Crocea Mors may not use Dust, but Jaune does. He always keeps some on hand to use raw just in case, and as extra stock for everybody else. It’s part of the reason we were able to make it to Mistral at all, his reserves kept us going when we ran low after Uncle Qrow got hurt.”

Weiss found herself momentarily at a loss for words at this information. She had come to respect Jaune to a degree over time, but it was still difficult for her to think of him as a reliable and resourceful leader in realistic contexts. She didn’t understand how his team had held together without Pyrrha and largely attributed that to Ruby’s leadership, but perhaps she would need to re-evaluate that.

Honestly, she still didn’t understand how they’d held up without Pyrrha, Ruby filling in and providing her surprisingly effective leadership skills or not. Even discounting Pyrrha’s exceptional combat prowess, losing any teammate seemed like a devastating prospect in numerous ways. She knew that things simply hadn’t been the same between herself, Ruby, and Yang before Blake had turned back up, and they weren’t also dealing with the constant reminder of a close friend’s death. If Jaune really was the one who’d kept the team together through that, then Weiss could certainly afford him an additional modicum of respect.

“I… I see. Still, our supplies and funds are limited right now. We should try to be conservative with them.”

Ruby placed the dust vial back in her satchel before stretching her arms over her head and arching her back. “We’ll be starting at Haven before too much longer, and we’ve got plenty to last us til then!”

Weiss couldn’t help rolling her eyes at her partner’s carefree perspective. “That kind of thinking is what will run us out.”

There was a pause where Ruby seemed to sober, arms dropping back to her sides and shoulder slumping a bit, and when she spoke again her tone was much heavier. “I’m kind of more worried about the team than about the supplies. I mean, what’s gonna happen to Jaune and Ren and Nora at Haven? Are they gonna get some new team member pushed on them? It’s either that or be one person short, right? I’m not even sure which of those would be worse… And then there’s Blake and Yang… they’re doing okay, better than they were at first, but they keep having problems. Warm up and then get cold again. I’m not sure what to do to help fix things between them, I’ve never really had to deal with this type of thing as a leader before. We’ve had our share of issues within the team, like with you and Blake back in our first semester, but things have always just kind of worked out…”

Unfortunately, Ruby had a point. Still, Weiss had managed at least mild success in helping their other two teammates sort things out. Perhaps a little additional effort amongst the four of them would do everyone some good. With a sigh, Weiss gently put a hand on Ruby’s shoulder and pulled her to a stop. “The other morning, when Blake and I went to finalize our Haven applications… I talked to her. About her situation with Yang: things she was doing that were causing problems and things she could do differently. I really think it helped, but she’s still having problems. As much as I love Yang, I have no idea how to help her work towards finding a middle ground from the other side of things. If you could talk to her, I could talk to Blake again. Perhaps we can figure out what’s causing the continued issues. But honestly, this might be something that they have to work out for themselves.”

Ruby’s spirits scarcely brightened, expression still downcast as she avoided meeting Weiss’ eye. She seemed reluctant to even process what Weiss was saying, but after a long moment she offered at least a weak reply. “Maybe…”

As much as Ruby’s trademark excessive enthusiasm wore on her nerves, Weiss had to admit that that was far preferable to seeing her like this. She found her mind quickly searching for a way to bring back Ruby’s smile and positivity: something she hadn’t realized that she’d come to rely on until it was taken from her when her father dragged her back to Atlas. Ruby was ever the optimist, an idealist who refused to let circumstances dampen her spirit, pulling those around her up when they stumbled. Seeing her so full of doubt was practically distressing.

Adopting what she hoped was an upbeat tone despite her trepidation, Weiss pressed ahead. “I’m sure that the situation is reparable. Blake and Yang have always been close partners, and if their effectiveness in team training is any indication, they certainly still have that foundation to build upon. You and I can take some time tonight to come up with a plan of how to help them overcome their current obstacles. Or, if you think it would be more effective, we could have a team meeting about it. I’m sure that neither of them would turn one down.”

Ruby seemed a bit surprised by Weiss’ positivity, something she showed rarely. Weiss could practically see her suggestions taking root and blossoming in Ruby’s mind as her expression slowly brightened. “Yeah… yeah, okay. A team meeting sounds like a good idea. That way we all know what’s going on, and we’ve got all four of us trying to get things good again. Yeah! It’s official, team meeting before dinner! Let’s go get our team back on track, then we can worry about how to help the others.”

Weiss couldn’t suppress a small smile at Ruby’s lifted spirits. “Precisely.”

* * *

The safehouse was eerily quiet when Weiss led Ruby inside, darkness creeping up the walls as the last light of the setting sun faded. A note pinned to the board by the door said that Jaune, Nora, and Ren had gone for team training exercises, and Qrow was frequently out with Oscar meeting with contacts or gathering intel until late in the evenings, which only left Blake and Yang. Easily on the same wavelength, Weiss and Ruby nodded to each other.

“Blake was staying home to nap,” Weiss observed. “I’ll see if she’s still in our room.”

“And Yang said she was going to do some maintenance on her arm, so she’d be in the garage,” Ruby replied.

With another nod, the two headed for their separate locations. As Weiss crested the stairs, a small gust of wind ruffling her skirt and a flurry of rose petals announced Ruby’s presence. As she turned back with a scathing look, Ruby shrugged. “Yang’s not in the garage.”

“I assumed,” Weiss said, suppressing the urge to roll her eyes. Turning back to her task, she made her way to the team’s room and peered through the already open door, Ruby at her elbow.

There was Yang, sitting on her bed with her head in her hands. Gently, Ruby pushed past Weiss and hurried into the room, concern clear in her demeanor. “Yang? Yang, are you okay?”

Yang dropped her arms to rest her elbows on her knees, seeming to deflate just a bit further before shrugging one shoulder. “I’m not sure. I don’t think so.” Her voice sounded weak and resigned.

“What happened?” Ruby pressed.

“I…” Yang sighed, turning her head away from her teammates to focus instead on the weapons lying on the bookshelf between the bunks. “Blake was doing that thing again. Where she shuts down. I decided to talk to her about it, but…”

“Yang,” Weiss broke in, already suspecting the answer. “Where is Blake?”

There was a long pause before Yang responded. When she did, she turned back to face them, tears brimming at the edges of her eyes. “She left.”

“Why?”

“I…” Yang's voice wavered, threatening to break even as she forced strength into it. “I told her to.”

Weiss’ fingernails dug into her palms as she did her best not to scream in frustration. “Why on Remnant would you do that?!”

“She didn’t want to be here,” Yang explained, defending her choices even as the tears began rolling down her cheeks. “She said that just being around me made her feel like she was…  _ drowning _ in bad memories. She didn’t even mean to come back, she was looking to talk to Qrow. It’s better for her if she’s gone.”

Stomping her foot once, Weiss marched to the center of the room to yell at Yang properly. Ruby tried to placate her, but Weiss brushed her off with a briefly gentle look that said ‘I know what I’m doing’. “Am I truly the only one in this house with common sense? Of course she wanted to be here, you imbecile! She’s had dozens of opportunities to leave, especially those first few days, but she stayed. Just because her being here was accidental and difficult doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right choice for her!”

Yang was on her feet a breath later, watery eyes burning red as she glared down at Weiss and shouted back. “Well then maybe I told her to leave because I don’t want her here!”

Weiss didn’t flinch, though her tone fell much lower, incisive rather than scathing. “That’s ridiculous and you know it. If you were angry at her, you wouldn’t be upset about her leaving... What are you really angry about, Yang?”

Yang shook in frustration for a moment, more tears falling, before she cried out in anguish, her aura bursting into flame. Ruby and Weiss recoiled slightly at the heat, but the fires quickly died as their teammate slumped back onto her bed, eyes fading back to violet as she scrubbed at her damp face with the one hand that wasn't metal. “I don’t know… Nothing? Everything?... This whole thing has gotten so messed up, and I just want…”

Yang trailed off, and when it became clear that she wasn’t planning on finishing that sentence, Weiss pressed. “What do you want, Yang?”

* * *

Blake had been wandering the dark streets of Mistral in a haze for hours. She’d learned the city decently well while running around with Sun, but having paid no attention to where she was going as she walked tonight, she had no idea where she was. Even with her keen night vision, everything looked different in the dark. Not that it mattered where she was, as she had no destination in mind anyway.

Sure, she could go to Sun, he would put her up while she figured out what she should do. But she knew what she  _ wanted  _ to do, and with Team SSSN wasn’t where she wanted to be. She’d already found herself stumbling onto the block of the safehouse three times during her aimless walk. She wanted to be with her team and her partner, even her subconscious knew it.

Each time, she turned to find a different path.

On some level, she knew that she should go back. Ruby and Weiss still wanted her around, probably. And if she was going to leave for good, she at least owed it to them to explain face to face. Still, she wouldn’t force herself on Yang again. Not after being thrown out like that. No matter how much she wanted to. It wasn’t her place any more…

Or maybe it still was. She was still enrolled at Haven with the rest of the team. And Yang only really rejected her when she learned that Blake hadn’t meant to come back. Before that, they'd been having a good time in the garage. Or they would have been, if Blake hadn't been spooked. If she came back now, and meant it, maybe Yang would accept her back again after all. It wouldn't fix anything, not really, but it would be a start.

It was worth a shot.

Mind suddenly made up, Blake whirled around and set off at a brisker pace, determined to make her way back to the block of the safehouse. Returning immediately probably wasn’t the best idea, Yang would need time to cool off, but perhaps tomorrow would be sufficient. Regardless of when the return attempt happened, Blake was certainly going to stay nearby. Perhaps she could find a suitable vacant building on the block, or at least an alley with an overhang, a dumpster to block the mountain wind. It certainly wouldn’t be the worst accommodations she’d stayed in, even if it had been quite some time since she’d roughed it that hard with the White Fang.

Maybe she’d even catch an opportunity to speak with Weiss or Ruby before trying to bridge the gap with Yang. Surely she could convince Ren or Qrow to discreetly send one of them out to talk to her, even if she didn’t encounter any of her teammates directly. They could help her choose the right time and help that time go right. 

She did her best not to think about what would happen if coming back failed and Yang truly was done with her. She didn't have a backup plan.

Struggling to navigate now that she had a proper destination and was actually trying to, Blake did her best to search for landmarks to help her get her bearings. Unfortunately, she quickly came to the conclusion that she hadn’t been in this portion of town before. Nothing looked even the slightest bit familiar.

Thinking back over her walk, what she could remember of it, she recalled going down at least a couple of terraces, but not up any, so up the slope was probably her best bet to find something she recognized. Path chosen, she raced to the nearest cross-street and turned up it.

A half dozen streets later without spotting anything helpful, she was starting to grow frustrated. Estimating that she was too far west based on the angle at which she could see the massive building at Mistral’s peak, she turned onto the next street in hopes of having better luck farther east.

She made it only a couple of steps before she froze in her tracks. Just down the block were a half dozen faunus wearing Grimm masks. They must have recognized her, because four of them were already drawing their weapons. The other two weren’t far behind.

Blake reached to her shoulder for Gambol Shroud, prepared to delay her plans for returning to the safehouse long enough to dispatch these miscreants and gather some useful intel on the White Fang presence in Mistral. But her hand closed on only air. The reality of her situation settled in her gut like a stone made of ice.

She’d left Gambol Shroud on the bookshelf in the team’s bedroom when she ran out. Blake was alone, unarmed, and staring down six members of a violent gang she'd betrayed. The White Fang leveled their weapons at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry! Again! I'll fix it!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas, dear readers! I didn't quite get it done in time (what else is new), but I finally sat myself down yesterday and wrote this specifically as a Christmas gift to all of you. Thank you so much for all of the support, even while I've been failing to produce for months on end. It means the world to me that you all have connected with and enjoyed this work of mine so much. It's definitely a labor of love, and your kind messages and words of encouragement kept me going. This chapter, and the majority of this work, are a product of your enthusiasm driving an author to produce for the fandom. We wouldn't be here without all of you. Without further ado, enjoy!

Leaping backwards with her semblance, Blake took off up the slope the way she’d been going before as her shadow took the first shot from the White Fang, a handful of others missing thanks to her sudden movement. As she bolted up the street, she hoped she’d be able to lose them at the next corner with her semblance again, leave them chasing a clone while she took cover. Defeating them wasn’t feasible unarmed, escape would have to be enough.

A shot bounced off her shoulder, and though her aura absorbed the damage, the force of it threw her off balance and made her stumble into the wall of the building beside her. She pushed off it into a sprint again, but knew that it had cost her precious distance between her and her pursuers, not to mention a chunk of aura. She had plenty of reserves left, but both of those things still put her on a timer.

As she passed the corner of the building, she activated her semblance again, throwing herself down the cross street and sending her decoy running ahead in her place. Whether it was the night vision of the faunus chasing her allowing them to see her separating from the clone in the dim light, or their keen hearing alerting them that the shadow’s footsteps were silent while the sound faded around the corner, Blake didn’t know. But another two shots to her aura made her painfully aware of the fact that they continued following the real her, unimpeded by her deception. The thought to call Sun for help sprung to mind and she pulled her scroll from her pocket, but before she could even dial, a well placed shot knocked it out of her hand. A glance over her shoulder revealed that one of them had stopped briefly and aimed to get the necessary precision.

_ Okay, Blake, how do you do this? _ She thought frantically as she rounded another corner.  _ You’re not going to lose them that easily, and you can’t fight them without a weapon. A clone jump might be able to get you to a safe spot, but you’d have to hide right away or they’ll follow the sound of your footsteps. It’d have to be just the right place… and I have no idea where that would be. Okay… so maybe you can come at this from the other end. The other problem is no weapon: maybe you can improvise something. _

Quickly scanning her upcoming options, she made a hard turn into an alley and dropped a shadow at the entrance. It wouldn't slow them down much, but it might give her the element of surprise. Snatching up the first reasonably useful objects to hand, she turned and waited for her pursuers. The first ran directly into her shadow and faltered, so when Blake leapt forward and slammed into him with the trash can lid, he took a hard collision between her and the guy behind him. Both of them fell to the ground, but only one got back up as Blake blocked the first few shots with her improvised shield and jumped off of the frontrunner to continue her assault. 

It was clear that she was unaccustomed to using a shield, she was terrible at blocking with it and even worse at hitting, but it was something. The discarded bottle was something too, and quickly became a sharp something once she broke it over an opponent’s head. She tried makeshift shield and dagger against a third, but by that time, the remaining members had caught their footing. Pot-shots to her back quickly showed she couldn't keep this up, and that only escalated when she found herself disarmed, a sword rammed through her trash can lid and used to knock the bottle from her hand. She managed to send another clone in the opposite direction as she bolted to the end of the alley, the walls around them obscuring her footsteps enough to confuse her assailants momentarily and allow her some distance.

Two down wasn't enough, and she wasn't sure she'd get to surprise them like that again. Not to mention, she was running out of time. Without being able to effectively avoid their shots or keep them from shooting, the barrage of gunfire was depleting her aura faster than she'd planned on. These guys had at least one crack shot with them, and she’d taken too many during her attempt at combat.

Frantically searching for options and dropping as many shadows as she could simply to limit the number of shots her aura had to take, Blake quickly realized she was coming up empty. Without a weapon or backup, it was only a matter of time until they incapacitated her. She needed to try something drastic.

As she ran out into the next street, she heard the rev of an engine and shielded her eyes from bright headlights, the first vehicle she’d seen running in the last hour. Two more shots struck her aura and she could feel it flickering as she stumbled from the impact and stepped around the corner. An idea struck her, and as the vehicle raced towards her, she ran towards it as well, prepared to use a shadow jump to hitch a ride. Hopefully it wouldn’t question the extra passenger and just keep going, take her away from here.

But as it drew closer, she realized it was slowing down. And that it was a motorcycle. An orange motorcycle. Driven by someone with a mass of long blonde hair.

Yang took one hand off the controls to reach around and pull Gambol Shroud from its sheath on her back, and Blake watched as the weapon shifted to its gun form. As the bike drew near, Yang reared back and threw the weapon at Blake, who deftly caught it. Catching onto the Bumblebee attack even slightly in reverse, Blake anchored herself and spun to face her assailants as Yang sped past. As she bailed on one Bumblebee and left it to skid down the road, the other Bumblebee sent her arcing toward the corner Blake had rounded. Her fist met the frontrunner of the White Fang just as he rounded the corner, and the sheer force of momentum behind Ember Celica ensured that all four of them wouldn’t be doing any more chasing tonight.

For a moment, Blake was struck by how much Yang looked like her old self: standing tall over a defeated enemy, protecting her friends, golden gauntlets glowing in the light of the street lamps. The aura of power and authority she gave off was palpable and distinctive. But then her shoulders sagged, and she turned to look at Blake. The power was gone, and Blake could see that her eyes weren’t red with adrenaline, but red and puffy from crying. She’d done this to Yang, Blake realized. She’d brought Adam into her life, she’d cost Yang her arm, she’d abandoned her partner when she needed her the most. And for once, knowing that all the pain was because of her didn’t make her want to run. It made her want to stay, and fix it.

She was just surprised that Yang seemed to want her to, at this point.

As Blake walked over to stand beside her partner, Yang dropped Gambol Shroud’s ribbon with a sigh. “You… came looking for me,” Blake started.

“Yeah,” Yang replied dryly. “You forgot this. And… I’m sorry I pushed you into leaving. I don’t want you to.”

“I was trying to come back. I just got lost. I don’t want to leave either.”

“But you did.”

Blake winced. “I… thought you wanted me to. I thought that-”

“No,” Yang interrupted. “The first time.”

Blake took a deep breath and let it out through her nose. She knew she was going to have to do this at some point. She’d even been planning on doing it first thing when she saw Yang again, before everything got so messed up. That didn’t make it easier to talk about. “I was afraid. I’ve done a lot of bad things, before I met you. I guess I’ve done quite a few bad things since then too. But you didn’t deserve to suffer for my mistakes. And I knew that if I stayed, that’s what would happen. Adam already tried to take you once, and he’d do it again if he could. He’d kill you, and Ruby, and Weiss, and  _ everyone  _ if it meant hurting me. He’s obsessed, and I made him that way. Well, it’s my fault he’s obsessed  _ with me _ , at least. I know I hurt you, but I did it because I thought it was the only way to make sure you were safe from him. If you weren’t around me.”

“But you’re back now. What’s different?”

Blake thought about that for a moment. Nothing with Adam was any different. He was still out there, threatening her with his very existence. “I’m still afraid of him,” she admitted. “Every day I worry that he’ll find me, find all of us. But you know first-hand how dangerous he is. And if you still want to be with me, knowing that he’s after anyone close to me… then I shouldn’t stop you. Not when I want to be with you too.”

Yang was silent for a long moment, absorbing the information. “I’m still afraid of him too, you know. I thought I was over it, but… then I had that nightmare. You know, a few nights after you came back. So I guess I’m not over it. But I’d do it again.”

The words turned over in Blake’s mind, something didn’t quite add up. “How… how did you know that I knew about your nightmare? How did you know I wasn’t asleep?”

“You were too quiet,” Yang replied simply. “You purr in your sleep.”

Blake was practically taken aback. “What? No I don’t. My mom never said anything about that and she would have teased me all the time. And even if I did, I would have had it trained out of me years ago in the White Fang.”

Yang didn’t know how to respond to that other than to shrug. “You always do when I’m around.” That statement hung in the air between them for a moment before a blush spread across Blake’s cheeks. The implications weren’t lost on Yang, and she had to suppress a blush of her own.

“Look, I do want you back,” she said at length, getting back on track. “And I do want to forgive you for leaving. But that doesn’t mean that everything is okay. Wanting that isn’t going to suddenly make it stop hurting. It’s not going to let me really trust right away that you’re here for good. The whole time you’ve been back, I’ve been waiting for you to leave again. Talking about it helps, I understand now. But it’s still going to take some time.”

“I know,” Blake replied somberly. “The memory of that night still hurts, and it probably always will. And being around you, around this…” She gently took Yang’s right hand between hers, lifting it up and turning it over. “Just brings it closer to the surface. It’ll take time for that to fade too. But I’ll try not to let the fact that it hurts me hurt us.”

“This still sucks,” Yang summarized. “But… we can get through it. As long as we want to.”

“I want to.”

“Me too.” She pulled her metallic hand out from between Blake’s, but kept it raised. “It’s gonna keep sucking, but we’re gonna figure it out. Promise?” She held out her pinky.

Blake smiled for the first time all night, and as she hooked her pinky through Yang’s, she really felt, for the first time in years, like everything would turn out okay. “Promise.”

“Good. Now, let’s go home.”

Blake liked the sound of that. But… “What about Bumblebee?”

They both looked over at the probably-salvageable wreckage of Yang’s bike, then back at each other. “You push, I navigate,” Yang said authoritatively before starting for the mass of machinery.

“That hardly seems fair,” Blake replied, trailing after her.

“I know where we’re going,” Yang reminded her. “And I’ve only got one arm.”

Blake regretted not having anything inconsequential to throw at her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends Buried Flames. I had a concept for a followup fic, but I think volume five might have killed it for me. I'm sure I'll be back to write more for the fandom soon though, RWBY is life. Feel free to subscribe to my author's page if you want to catch whatever I put out next. Until then, remember that I love you all and think you're amazing, and I'll see you there.
> 
> PS: If you'd like to see me between now and then, come find me on Tumblr at [BlakeDeservesBetter](http://blakedeservesbetter.tumblr.com)! My ask box and messenger are always open and I'd love to hear from you, and if you crave more of my writing, I've been getting into rp on there too! Interacting with you guys has been one of my favorite things about the rwby fandom, and I hope that lots more of you take the chance to talk to me.


End file.
